| A professional company director, Sir Tipene chaired the Ngai Tahu Holdings Corporation from its inception in 1991 until 2000 and remains a director of a number of companies in the tourism, agricultural and natural resource sectors. He has been a member of the NZ Fishing Industry Board and a director of the Seafood Industry Council Ltd. and was a long serving director on the Board of TVNZ. He holds a well recognised place in New Zealand historical scholarship – marked by the University of Canterbury in 1992 by the degree D.Litt (Hons.Causae). He has written and lectured extensively in New Zealand and overseas where he has held a variety of academic fellowships particularly in association with the University of Canterbury where he has taught post-graduate History for many years. He was the 1998 Macmillan Brown Memorial Lecturer at the University and is a past member of the NZ Conservation Authority.
He is a member of the NZ Geographic Board, a former board member of the Law of the Sea Institute and a former Trustee of the Prince of Wales Trust. He is currently a Director of Meridian Energy Ltd and Deputy Chair of the Transit NZ Authority. In 1993 he was the National Business Review’s New Zealander of the Year and in 2001 he was elected a Distinguished Fellow of the Institute of Directors. In 2002 he was recognised with the Supreme Award of the NZ Seafood Industry Council for services or the NZ Industry. In 2000 he was appointed a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Canterbury and a Board Trustee of the Marine Stewardship Council (UK). He is an Honorary Lecturer and Adjunct Fellow of the Australian Maritime College where he teaches on the MBA programme. He is the 2003 Hocken Lecturer at the University of Otago. He is Patron of the Christchurch Arts Festival and Patron of the Foundation for Research on Marine Mammals. | |
